Good Burmese in Brooklyn, at a Place You’ve Never Heard Of

Burmese food is regrettably rare in this town—”a Holy Grail in New York,” as jen kalb observes on Chowhound. It’s less rare, though, with the arrival of Different Golden Land Style, which she spied recently in Brooklyn near the mini-Chinatown on Avenue U. The menu at this mom-and-pop counter, which opened a month ago inside a grocery called New King’s Fruit, is short, snackish, and cheap, with nothing over $5.

Mohinga (fish soup with noodles, pictured) delivers fish-sauce funk, a shot of garlic, and sneaky chile heat, squid kun says. Tender chicken in a lively curry sauce comes over a mountain of rice (beef curry boasts the same sauce, but the meat can be tough). Chicken-coconut noodle soup rounds out the menu—alongside sushi, teriyaki, and sandwiches made of Boar’s Head meats. Check out the cold case, which might contain coconut pie, shrimp curry, or other Burmese edibles. There’s nothing Burmese, though, about the host grocery, which carries a Latin-leaning inventory—masa, dried Mexican chiles, Portuguese-style breads—and has signage in English, Spanish, and Russian. Welcome to Brooklyn.

In Queens, meanwhile, where Chowhounds have scored great Burmese home cooking over the years at occasional community events, an all-you-can-eat Burmese feast is coming up on Saturday, December 15, DaveCook reports. It’s a fund-raiser for Burmese orphans, and tickets will be $15. “Given the cause,” Dave says, “it seems both fair and generous not to insist on change from your twenty.”